The 2001-2002 school year soon begins in Mississippi. While the teachers will be busy planning their lessons and teaching strategies for the new school year, I would like to share with them something that I believe is important. It is about lives, our children's lives.
We read in the newspapers almost every day the tragic stories of children killing children, often accidentally or unintentionally. Although there is a decrease in juvenile homicides during the past seven years, the number of juveniles prosecuted as adults has increased significantly, and the number of youths serving time in adult prisons has escalated recently. According to the Justice Policy Institute, juveniles in adult prisons are more likely to be raped, molested or to commit suicide. After their release, most of them will end up in prison.
These are judicial and legal issues. What has this to do with us, the teachers?
I have been thinking of these issues for the past few weeks. I question myself, How could this happen in a society of people who are known as the most religious, church-going and God-believing? How could a 14-year-old boy tried recently as an adult be convicted of second-degree murder?
After meditating on the subject and doing some research, I conclude that our young people do not take life seriously. Citing the Ten Commandments, we often teach them, "You shall not kill." We make them aware of the value of others' lives, but not their own. They should first know how precious their lives are.
But the most important lesson we as teachers could teach our students is that life is precious. No one should give up his or her life for something that is not as precious as his or her life. Some times the playful acts of children end up in serious criminal acts. It happened to 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick, who was beaten to death by 12-year-old Lionel Tate, who outweighed Tiffany by more than 100 pounds. The defense attorney argues that the girl died during "roughhousing" with the boy, and the death was accidental and unintentional. However, the judge convicted the boy of first-degree murder.
The question is often asked, under what situation, if any, a person could consider that it is worth giving his or her life for something that is as precious as his or her life? Immediately comes to my mind my own feeling, when I, in India as a 16-year-old, marched with others for India's freedom from the British in 1939. A bullet passed just one foot from me and hit one of the other demonstrators. At that time, I considered it worthwhile to die for the freedom of my country.
Another example is the civil rights movement in the United States. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was warned several times that he was putting his life in imminent danger. But he was prepared to give his life for something that he considered to be more precious than his life. Finally he was shot down outside of his motel room in Memphis. I was an instructor at that time at Rust College in Holly Springs.
My wife and I occasionally conduct training workshops for child care center staff. As an instructor, I advise the participants at the beginning of the workshop to let the children understand and recite daily: "Do not hurt anyone or anything." The trainees sometimes ask me what do I mean by "anything." I tell them that the children should know that they should not break or damage the furniture, equipment, learning materials or the toys. By reciting "Do not hurt anybody or anything," they begin to learn the value of everything that they use at the child care center. I also advise the center director to put it as a motto on the walls of each room in the center.
The children should know that everything has life, although there is a difference between the life of a human and the life of an object. The human life is more precious because once gone, it is gone forever, whereas when an object is broken, we can fix it and make it useful again. We take care of our body because the life is part of the body. We cannot see life, but without life the body is dead. Therefore, we have to take care of the body, and we have to protect our precious life.
How can one take care of life, something that he or she cannot see? Yes, we cannot see life, but we feel it because we are alive. To enrich my life, I enrich my mind and spirit that also I cannot see. Just like we exercise to keep our bodies healthy and strong, so also we have to conduct mental and spiritual exercise so that they can function effectively.
What is spirit? The word "spirit" has several meanings. It is used here as a noun of the adjective "spiritual." For example, "Paul was a spiritual person." In the Scriptures, we find the word "spirit" that sometimes means spirit of the dead. It also means the Holy Spirit, the power of God. Whatever the meanings, we know that in addition to having a precious life, each of us has a thinking mind and a guiding spirit that tells us: "Your life is precious. Do not give it up for something that is not as precious as your life."
- Shaw is an associate professor of English at Mississippi Valley State University.
